Learning to be okay with sticking out...

First things first..I am not writing this to say that I enjoy being the center of attention...because I don't.  I will admit though that it is nice to have people laugh at my jokes, listen when I tell a story and genuinely be impressed with my knowledge of education.  What I don't want though is to come across as someone who thinks she knows everything.  

Today...I took the road less traveled..well at least by me.  I decided that I would just stick out in a couple of places, that I would otherwise have just stood back and let pass me by.  

The first thing that happened is I found myself volunteering to be the chair of one of our biggest committees.  Ha ha...after AC last year I never wanted to see the word committee and my name again.  But you know this world and the way education works...there is no way to get out of being a part of a committee.  So..here I am once again only this time I am a leader, and I have NO IDEA what I am doing!  Sure I have been on committees before and sure I have worked in a school setting before, but there are like 20 sub-committees within this one committee and honestly I am just waiting for someone to say..."umm...why don't we take that chair position back now and give it to someone else."  I won't be offended, but I also am hoping that I can do something amazing with this role that I have been given.  If nothing else I just want to survive!  :)  

The second act of sticking out was when I decided that I would wear my bright orange jacket and my bright neon yellow tennis shoes to go to the store that is right down the street.  Ha!  You would have thought I was wearing some crazy outfit the way people were staring at me.  Oh...guess I am not at Rawhide anymore!  

The point is that both of these circumstances today made me think that 10 years ago when I was just beginning my overseas adventures I would have hated, absolutely hated anyone staring at me, and noticing that I was different.  I would have never volunteered to be in charge of anything, and I would have just sat back and let the world sort of pass me by.  So, today I am looking at life and saying...who cares?  I am glad that I don't look like everyone else, and do what everyone else does.  Yes, sometimes especially right now when I don't feel too connected with anyone here it makes for a lonely world.  But it is a world I am willing to live in.  A world I am willing to understand and love because I am an important member of it.  It is amazing to me how much we all desire to be different, but then when we are put in a situation where we are different, we shrink away and want to just be the same as everyone else.  

I don't want that for my life.  I never want to settle for what everyone else is doing or who everyone else is being.  I want to live a life that is set apart and different.  I want to think my own things, and be okay with going for a walk in a bright orange jacket in the middle of Kuwait, and be okay with it.  So today I say one point me...because I succeeded in not feeling like I was sticking out too much.  One point for saying, I am going to be myself, and I won't conform to everything that is in this culture. Sure there are some things I am going to adhere to, but my culture and who I am is good as well.  

So here's to sticking out....hope you can stick out a little bit today.  Who knows....maybe you need to find a bright orange jacket to wear!  It will make you smile, I promise!